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Join Now!Austrian developer stillalive studios, already veterans of various tycoon and simulation games, have also made themselves a name via various episodes of the Bus Simulator franchise. Not content with just that, they decided to launch their own IP from the ground up – where, once more, players can drive buses. This is DayOne‘s review for Bus Bound, tested on Xbox Series X!
Simulacra
I’ll be brutally blunt – I tend to avoid reviewing simulation games like this. Not because there aren’t good ones or because I can’t find value in them, but I feel like they are tremendously tough to write proper reviews for at times. So many of them seemingly boil down to very meticulously reproducing an oddly specific job’s ins and outs, often with very clunky UIs, basic graphics, janky game engines, and they rarely offer much value to anyone who is not a hardcore fan of the specific craft being simulated. I am also not particularly trained on the ins and outs of planes, trains, excavators or whatever is being simulated usually, so I’m hardly the authority to try and judge on the veridicity of the game.
With Bus Bound, I figured I’d take on the offer to review the game, as I was positively impressed with its general presentation from the trailers. Also, it is being published under Saber Interactive‘s banner, whose recent library contains gems like John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando and The Knightling – or, perhaps more relevantly to a simulation of vehicles, the MudRunner games. As said, the developer stillalive studios have done multiple Bus Simulator games, as well, so I thought there was the potential for something that meets my tastes. And, indeed, Bus Bound managed to do so.
Like in my school days
Where I currently live, I rarely use a bus, with a car being the most optimal way to reach almost any location I need to reach on a regular basis. However, I spent many years riding on the bus, especially in my youth – part of which was spent going to a school several kilometres away, requiring me to use two different buses each time to get there. Back then, when I was younger, I used to wonder how the bus driver manages those gnarly manouvers with a vehicle this long. And in most bus simulator games, I feel like this is explored in a boring, clunky way. It’s a long car, and not with the most reactive of steering. I’ve rarely found it a fun activity to do in games.
Bus Bound manages to make the activity realistic, but also quite enjoyable and rewarding. At first, it seems to boil down to the very basics of any bus-based simulator you may have played in the last decade or so. First or third person view, low speeds, traffic management just as important as finding the right parking spot. As mentioned, however, I often find these loops to be unsatisfying in many games. Poor driving feedback, everything feels slow and clunky, the virtual worlds are often quite lifeless, making the actual act of driving the bus fairly boring. If I wanted to do boring tasks for hours, I’d do extra hours in the office – I’d at least get paid for that!
The Three keys to success
I’d break down to three main areas why Bus Bound works very well, much more so than most titles in the genre that I tried. The first is that the controls are accessible and enjoyable even on a controller. Responsive commands, various handy assists like a speed limiter, with the game even showing all buttons on screen at all times to avoid confusion. Before long, I’ve found myself expertly managing the long shape of the bus even in tight corners, because the controls felt good, precise, thus making tough segments feel challenging but fair. The game even gives you a rating when you’re getting to a stop, evaluating how well the bus is lined up to the curb and to the stop itself, and it always feels fair and consistent. It’s better to stop a little short than overshooting it and having to reverse, which is tremendously dangerous – as it often is in real life. You wouldn’t want to see a bus suddenly reversing next to a stop full of people.
The second aspect is how lively the game’s world feels. Set in a fictional American town named Emberville, this town has it all: rural areas, busy intersections, highways, bridges, you name it. But everywhere you go, the game feels consistent with expectations. A dynamic traffic with excellent AI keeps the streets busy, while believeable reacting to your moves as well. A lot of pedestrians roam the streets and intersections. You will find speed bumps, one-way streets and more, but also dynamically changing obstacles like constructions, cars stopped due to a malfunction, badly parked cars and so forth. There’s even dynamic weather, with rain, fog and lights impacting the very driving experience in a well-done fashion. Also, the game’s graphics are pretty damn good, for a simulation like this, with even a hint of raytraced reflections on some vehicles if I’m not mistaken.
Have it your way
The third aspect is the player agency and customization. The campaign has the players discover more and more bus stops, unlocking more buses, as it should be. But the city itself evolves, as more and more youth areas, bus lanes and so forth get added as we complete various objectives. The initially not that massive playable area expands, as further bridges open up, letting us connect to new zones. We can create custom bus routes, customize the paints and colours on each vehicle, and even enjoy free roaming sessions where we just ride the bus and do fares on our own leisure. As mentioned, I’m hardly a fan of this sort of driving simulations – I’ve always been more of a racer guy. But I spent several hours, while reviewing the game, just chilling in Emberville on the bus, as I listened to some podcast or something.
It’s a relaxing, smooth, but most importantly, rather polished and well-made experience. The game gives you better scores for your fares if you get things done on time, but your multiplier goes down if you get above the speed limit by too much, get through speed bumps too fast, get over the sidewalks, skip a stop sign and so forth. Still, the game is not excessively strict, giving a decent leeway for players to have fun. If the traffic is a bit too stuck, the game doesn’t punish you for overtaking everyone (within reason, anyway), as long as you don’t go overboard with the infractions. Avoid wrecking traffic cars or running red lights, and your passengers will not mind the slight rule-bending. Also, forget the annoying tasks like taking tickets of micromanaging a fleet. Bus Bound is all about choosing or creating your routes, and then driving on them as smoothly as possible. It’s nice!
On this bus, everybody gets off. Uhm, not in that way.
As said, Bus Bound’s single player segment sees the player unlock more and more new areas, bouses and routes, giving them player agency in even creating their own fully customizable routes. My custom ruote named “Nice” with the line number “69” is a must for the citizens of Emberville, truly. If there’s one thing I disliked a bit, is how grindy some of the necessary and optional challenges are. Most mandatory unlocks are tied to getting a certain amount of positive ratings by passengers in a variety of stops, which means driving several routes in the same areas to reach said threshold. Still, the experience is at least very well-designed, with plenty of quality-of-life elements like a good view of the mirror even in third person mode when turning.
Similarly, you can unlock extra hard difficulty perks by completing grindy challenges for each of the available buses, but they can take quite a while to complete at times. My advice is not looking at the objectives too much, and enjoying the ride. It’s a pretty chill and enjoyable game, after all. There is an in-game radio with some solid radio music, but the best way to enjoy such a game for me was listening to a podcast or something instead. Bus Bound has one last trick up its sleeve, and it’s a 4-player online co-op experience. While I’ve only been able to test this mode with a single other person, it seems to work pretty well, though I’ll reserve proper judgement until the game launches to a bigger audience. At the very inviting launch price of 29.99 USD/EUR, I could see it become a sleeper hit, so hopefully there’ll be decent online activity as well.
Driving the bus is now for everybody
Bus Bound, to me, is the kind of game that proves that a bus driving simulation game can be fun, rewarding and enjoyable, even if the act of slowly manouvering such a vehicle is not something that excites you in the slightest. But a satisfying yet relaxing driving model, precise yet somewhat forgiving rules of the road, and a very lively and great looking town to explore and evolve to your liking turn the game into a very enjoyable experience. Not a massive amount of content as of today, but with a lot of player agency and even a 4-player online co-op mode, it’s definitely one of the finest vehicle simulation games I’ve ever played.
Bus Bound is the bus simulation for bus enthusiasts and newcomers alike, and thus far my surprise hit of the year 2026.
Bus Bound
Played on
Xbox Series X
PROS
- Accessible bus simulation that cuts off the boring parts of the job
- Excellent presentation with pretty impressive graphics
- Fantastic traffic simulation
- 4-player online multiplayer
- Great launch price
CONS
- Not tremendously varied
- Open world could be a bit bigger
- A bit grindy in terms of progression
